Virtualization

CA and VMware both suing insurance giant

Broadcom has accused Allstate Insurance of dodging a software license audit that the insurer claims only happened after it decided to stop using VMware and CA software.

Those two Broadcom business units – CA and VMware – have brought copyright infringement lawsuits against Allstate.

The CA suit, filed in May 2025, alleges that the insurer breached contracts after the sale of its Employer Voluntary Benefits business to an outfit called StanCorp. The VMware suit, filed in December 2025, alleges that Allstate didn’t comply with contract terms that required it to participate in license audits.

Software license audits are not unusual. Vendors routinely include the right to conduct audits in their contracts, and those rights can extend beyond the term of a license so that software companies can be paid for all use of code under a time-limited contract. Some vendors, however, are known to audit more often and more vigorously than others, or to use audits to gain leverage during license renewal negotiations.

Allstate claims Broadcom’s decision to audit it was not entirely reasonable.

“This case is about VMware’s decision to initiate a haphazard ‘audit’ of Allstate, once it was aware that Allstate did not intend to renew its contracts with VMware or its sister company, CA,” the company stated in a June 12 filing.

That accusation came after months of conflict.

An Allstate filing in the CA matter claims that Broadcom launched four audits, covering “Tanzu,” “VMWare,” “Agile Operations” and “Mainframe.” Broadcom advised of its intent to audit around April 2025.

Broadcom alleges Allstate didn’t co-operate with the audits. “Throughout August and September 2025, VMware sent weekly follow‑ups. Allstate continued to stonewall and withheld the requested materials,” according to VMware’s claim.

Allstate says it simply didn’t have the resources to respond to four simultaneous probes.

One of the tools Broadcom uses during software audits is a set of scripts that detect software installations. Allstate acknowledges it received the scripts and other audit material.

Then on September 12, Broadcom alleges, Allstate dropped a bombshell: It had “removed VMware from all devices.” On October 1, the insurance giant apparently told the virtualization pioneer “all VMWare instances have been terminated and removed” – at least from an environment governed by an enterprise license agreement.

After terminating its VMware estate, Allstate said Broadcom’s audit scripts wouldn’t work. The insurer nevertheless completed an audit questionnaire, but Broadcom said the info in that document was “woefully incomplete.”

Both cases continue and, on June 12, Allstate filed a document that offered its view of the matter – and includes the allegation that Broadcom only ordered its audits once it realized Allstate was binning VMware and CA software.

Allstate also accuses Broadcom of making “vague, competing, and contradictory demands of Allstate, often in direct violation of its contractual agreements.”

Broadcom and Allstate tried alternative dispute resolution in both matters but have not found common ground. Courts have proposed the two matters adopt the same timeline, which will see Dispositive Motions – an attempt to resolve a case before a full trial – take place no later than May 17, 2027.

The Register has asked Allstate why it decided to stop using Broadcom software and if it has replaced it. We’ve not heard back at the time of writing.

However we understand that the relationship between Allstate and Broadcom has not been good for quite some time, and that the insurer decided to move away from both VMware and CA at around the time Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware closed.

VMware points to major clients such as the London Stock Exchange and Nationwide Bank as evidence big corporate entities trust it with their private clouds, and therefore the heart of the IT estate that powers their business and enables innovation. And this week, AWS also showed confidence in VMware by adding support for version 9.x of its Cloud Foundation suite.

However, The Reg has also learned of several big users quitting VMware – including T-Mobile, Tesco, and Western Union – sometimes under acrimonious circumstances. ®

Google Photos is getting a new “Video Remix” feature that can edit and transform videos in seconds, Google announced on Wednesday. The feature is powered by Gemini Omni, Google’s recently released model that promises to “create anything from any input.”

The launch is Google’s latest push to bring more generative AI tools into its consumer apps as it continues to compete with companies like Apple, OpenAI, and Adobe. By baking AI-powered video editing into Google Photos, the tech giant is making it easier for users to edit clips with a few taps instead of relying on dedicated software, giving users another reason to stay within Google’s ecosystem.

The Video Remix tool can be accessed in the “Create” tab in Google Photos, allowing you to do things like apply cinematic relighting to brighten up a dark clip, swap out a plain background for something else, or add artistic styles to videos, such as watercolor, raw sketchbook, and oil painting effects.

For example, you could edit a video to make it appear that you shot it in a greenhouse, relight a video with a morning glow, or paint a video in a watercolor effect.

“Creating beautiful video clips shouldn’t require professional skills or hours of editing,” Google wrote in a blog post. “Now, with Video Remix in Google Photos, you can transform ordinary videos into share-worthy moments in just a few taps.”

Video Remix starts rolling out today to eligible Google AI Plus, Pro, and Ultra subscribers in the U.S., Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, and Turkey.

The feature is the latest in a series of AI-powered updates introduced to Google Photos. The app recently launched new touch-up tools to allow users to apply subtle edits and fixes, such as removing blemishes, refining skin texture, brightening eyes, and whitening teeth. Google also announced an AI-powered feature that turns photos of your clothes into a digital closet where you can create new outfit ideas and virtually try on outfits.

‘DMA’s mandate goes beyond what is lawful and proportionate’, Apple said.

Apple has today (8 July) lost a legal battle against the EU Commission that challenged how the bloc designated the company under its strict rules for Big Tech.

The iPhone maker took the bloc to court over its 2023 ‘gatekeeper’ designation under the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA), which aims to regulate players in various digital markets by setting responsibilities and banning unfair practices.

Gatekeepers, under the law, are companies considered to play a vital role in connecting businesses to consumers.

In its 2024 legal challenge, Apple sought to reverse the EU’s decision to designate its different App Stores across iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, Apple TVs and Apple Watches as a single core platform service under the DMA.

Apple’s iMessage, meanwhile, was designated as a number-independent interpersonal communications services for its number-less messaging capabilities, which the company also disagreed with.

Apple also argued that the DMA obligations to provide free-of-charge, effective interoperability are “unlawful”.

The Commission, however, argued against Apple, maintaining that irrespective of the device on which it was available, each of Apple’s different App Stores across its devices were used for the same purpose.

The EU General Court, today, took the side of the Commission and dismissed Apple’s actions, marking the latest development in the many legal challenges Apple and other Big Tech companies face in the bloc.

Apple has faced a number of challenges against its many different platforms as a result of the DMA. Last month, Italy announced a new investigation against the tech giant over concerns around its interoperability obligations.

Last year, the company – alongside Meta – became the first to receive penalties under the DMA, with Apple alone receiving a €500m fine for restricting app developers from informing customers of alternative offers outside its App Store.

“We firmly believe the DMA’s mandate goes beyond what is lawful and proportionate, threatening to erode decades of privacy and security protections we’ve built ​and leaving our users vulnerable to new risks,” an Apple spokesperson told news publications.

“We will continue advocating for the innovation and ​privacy our European customers deserve.” Apple can appeal the decision to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Separately, Apple, today, announced plans to spend more than $30bn with chipmaker Broadcom to produce more than 15bn chips in the US.

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Apple’s testing of memory chips from CXMT, a supplier black-listed by the U.S. government, could help ease the RAM pricing crisis. It’s nowhere near enough to solve the problem.

In late June, Apple reportedly asked the Trump administration to allow it to buy RAM chips from a supplier in China that the U.S. had blacklisted. As Cupertino waits on Washington, it is allegedly testing out the memory from the blackballed company.

According to two sources cited by the Financial Times, Apple has started to test DRAM chips produced by CXMT (ChangXin Memory Technologies). Apple has acquired memory chips intended for use in smartphones and devices sold in China.

The aim of the testing is to make sure the chips CXMT produces are good enough for use in Apple’s own products. At best, this could result in memory chips from CXMT being used in Western iPhones, so long as Apple gets permission from the U.S. government.

The purchase may seem like a political problem in the making for Apple. It’s really a lot simpler from Apple’s point of view, as it tries to figure out how to get around the painful pricing of the memory market.

The CXMT problem

The crux of the problem is CXMT and how it is designated as untrustworthy by the United States.

CXMT is located on the Chinese Military Company Blacklist, also known as 1260H. It is a list of companies that the Pentagon insists have links to the People’s Liberation Army, and therefore is a national security risk in the United States.

U.S. companies are able to buy components and products from firms on the blacklist. However, the Department of Defense is not able to make agreements with companies either on the list or those who use them as component suppliers.

In effect, Apple could buy the memory, but then it would immediately lose a lot of potential and lucrative sales to the U.S. Government. That’s before you consider the political scaremongering of Apple possibly using parts from an apparent security risk to the country.

The problem is worse than that for CXMT, as it was going to be placed on the “Entity List” until the White House stepped in and delayed it. The Entity List would put a hard block on Apple buying anything from CXMT.

Though Apple has reportedly acquired chips for testing, this wouldn’t go against the rules of the blacklist CXMT is on already. Apple won’t have introduced products using the chips through the supply chain, and it certainly wouldn’t sell them either.

We can even go as far as to say Apple’s chip purchase for testing is to be expected of the company. It wouldn’t be going to the trouble of petitioning the White House for permission if it didn’t know if it could use CXMT’s chips in the first place.

Government assistance and beneficial trouble

CXMT’s inclusion on the CMC Blacklist makes sense, considering how CXMT was formed and funded.

Really, it is very much a local company for local people. Or at least for supplying firms servicing a Chinese audience.

The company goes back to 2016, when Zhu Yiming started a government-backed project to build domestic fabs. The intention was to reduce a reliance on imported memory.

Following the acquisition of patents from Qimonda in 2019, as well as hiring key personnel from elsewhere, it worked on its DRAM strategy. It also acquired deep ultraviolet (DUV) machines from the Dutch producer ASML to make semiconductors.

Memory is in short supply globally — Image credit: SK Hynix

However, throughout its existence, it has been helped by the Chinese government. This included cheap land and assorted financing to build up its production.

It is estimated that CXMT received at least $880 million worth of government subsidies between 2023 and 2025.

So far, the subsidies haven’t really paid off. That is, until the memory crisis occurred.

In the last decade, the company saw losses totaling $5.4 billion. However, in the first quarter of 2026 alone, it hauled in $4.8 billion, and is expected to earn more as time goes on, and the RAM pricing crisis continues.

A potential help, but not by much

As the report explains, CXMT is the world’s fourth-largest producer of DRAM, behind the usual suspects, and usual Apple suppliers of SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. While it accounts for 11 percent of global DRAM wafer capacity as of 2025, it’s still not a dominant force in the market.

A lot of that is down to the whole China-US political climate, and things like the United States’ blacklists. But also, that it is chiefly a supplier to the local market.

Apple’s attempt to get the U.S. to rethink the political tensions in a very price-sensitive area of manufacturing makes sense from its viewpoint. It doesn’t care about the potential threat of national security as much as it wants to sell the iPhone to consumers.

If Apple can get the U.S. to agree to let it buy memory from CXMT, it will certainly be a help. It will also be small and only temporary.

That 11-percent wafer capacity is decent, but Apple would still have to compete with companies in China that already get memory from CXMT.

Then there’s the possibility of Apple not being alone. If it gets permission to purchase chips, so can other companies that are impeded by the same restrictions and issues.

The potentially cheaper memory pie will quickly be consumed by competitors doing the same thing. Eventually, it will then reach a point where the market returns to having limited supply and way too much demand once again.

Though CXMT has seen rapid growth in recent years, it too has to deal with limited capacity. As SemiAnalysis analyst Ray Wang said in the report, capacity is still extremely constrained and will remain so for the next two years, even if CXMT expands.

It’s a very temporary solution to a very long-term problem that can only be alleviated as the memory industry as a whole expands production.

Cloudflare has spent a year arming websites against AI crawlers. Now it wants to help one crawl better. The company said on Wednesday it is running a research pilot with OpenAI to test whether its network data can make AI search more accurate.

Cloudflare sits in front of more than a fifth of the web. That vantage point lets it watch how pages change and how traffic behaves in real time. The pilot feeds those signals, such as content freshness and traffic quality, into OpenAI’s search and answer system.

Why freshness matters

AI answers rise or fall on the pages behind them. When an index lags, a chatbot serves stale or plain wrong information. OpenAI wants Cloudflare’s live view of the web to help ChatGPT discover new content sooner.

OpenAI has also signed content deals to feed ChatGPT. This pilot targets a different gap. It tackles discovery, not licensing.

“Up-to-date information is important for delivering accurate answers to people using ChatGPT,” said Nick Ryder, OpenAI’s VP of research. He framed the test as a way to find content more efficiently.

A notable turn

The move sits oddly against Cloudflare’s recent record. Last year it let sites block AI crawlers unless the AI firms paid publishers. It built a browser protocol to tell humans and bots apart. Its slogan was blunt: your content, your rules.

This pilot points the other way. Rather than wall content off, Cloudflare now helps an AI engine reach it. CEO Matthew Prince cast it as efficiency, a way to “make AI search more efficient and help people get quality answers faster.”

Why it matters

Search keeps shifting from links to answers. Publishers already fear losing traffic as chatbots summarise their work, a worry that pushed regulators to force opt-outs. Cloudflare now sits on both sides of that line. It sells the tools to block crawlers, and it tests the plumbing to feed them. How the pilot lands could shape who reaches the open web, and on whose terms.

from the cowards-and-zealots dept

Back in February, Trump FCC Boss Brendan Carr launched a fake “investigation” of ABC because the network’s comedians and daytime talk show hosts hadn’t adequately kissed Republican ass.

Five months later and ABC’s The View is wimping out when it comes to hosting politicians at all, for fear it will upset the country’s mad idiot king:

“Since then, the ABC talk show hasn’t featured a single political candidate running in a competitive midterm race, according to a Semafor analysis.”

Earlier in the year, Republicans were upset that The View hosted Texas Democratic hopeful James Talarico. That triggered an entire fake “investigation” and a threatened revocation of ABC’s broadcast licenses by Carr, who falsely claimed that the daytime talk show had violated the FCC’s dated and irrelevant “equal time” rule requiring that TV stations give equal time to political candidates from both parties.

It apparently didn’t matter that Carr’s threats were empty, that any legal case would be laughed out of court on First Amendment grounds, that Carr actively avoids enforcing such laws for right wing radio, that evidence emerged Carr had actively concocted an entire conspiracy to make ABC look guilty, or that The View had clearly been exempt from the FCC’s “equal time” rules since 2002.

The threat of annoying costly legal headaches were still apparently enough to scare ABC (and likely other outlets) away from hosting politicians who would be critical of Trump.

It’s a shame that ABC, which had previously started to show some a signs of life in its battle with the thin-skinned U.S. president, suddenly doesn’t really want to talk about why The View rejected requests to host NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, or the democratic socialist candidates he supported for Congress, Darializa Avila Chevalier and Claire Valdez:

“A spokesperson declined to provide Semafor with a comment about how the show was reacting to the inquiry but has previously said the show is a “bona fide news program” and therefore isn’t subject to the equal time rule.”

Carr, you’ll recall, also threatened San Francisco area AM radio station KCBS late last year simply for reporting on local ICE activity, resulting in the station demoting one anchor and softening its political coverage overall. Carr also tried (and failed) to censor and fire comedian Jimmy Kimmel after the late night host made a joke about deceased right wing propagandist and racist Charlie Kirk.

That said, avoiding politics entirely for fear of losing money is fairly common across corporate media (including outlets like Semafor), resulting in no shortage of pseudo-journalism that pulls its punches, particularly when it comes to being honest about the continued Republican descent into bigotry and fascism.

Filed Under: brendan carr, censorship, chilling effects, equal time rule, fcc, first amendment, free speech, jimmy kimmel, the view

Companies: abc, disney

Even after the arrival of its in-house modems, Apple’s product lines still mostly rely on Qualcomm for cellular hardware. Here are all the Qualcomm chips Apple uses.

On June 30, AppleInsider revealed that the iPhone 18 Pro might ship in two region-specific modem configurations: a Qualcomm modem in the United States, and the Apple C2 elsewhere in the world. The information serves as the perfect illustration of Apple’s continued reliance on Qualcomm.

While the original iPhone featured an Infineon modem, Apple started using Qualcomm hardware in February 2011, with the Verizon variant of the iPhone 4.

Since then, nearly all iPhone and cellular iPad models have come with a Qualcomm modem, with the iPhone 16e, iPhone 17e, and iPhone Air being the only exceptions.

Qualcomm modems in the iPhone

In the United States, the switch to Qualcomm hardware had a lot to do with the carriers through which customers could get an iPhone. Until 2011, all iPhones were available through AT&T, which supported the GSM or Global System for Mobile Communications standard.

The CDMA variant of the iPhone 4 was the first iPhone to use a Qualcomm modem.

Other major carriers, like Sprint and Verizon, meanwhile, used a different radio technology by the name of CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access. In short, because existing Infineon modems only offered GSM support, Apple decided to turn to Qualcomm for a CDMA modem.

The CDMA iPhone 4, launched in February 2011, included the MDM6600 modem. Even though the modem itself supported both GSM and CDMA, the Verizon iPhone 4 was only designed to use CDMA. It had no SIM card slot.

With the iPhone 4S, Apple used the Qualcomm MDM6610, which could switch between GSM and CDMA as needed. Then, the iPhone 5 continued the trend with the Qualcomm MDM9615M, also known as the Qualcomm Gobi 5000.

Apple continued to use Qualcomm modems exclusively until the iPhone 7, when the Intel XMM7360 was used for iPhone models sold via AT&T and T-Mobile. Intel’s modems lacked CDMA support, only offering GSM. For CDMA iPhone 7 models, the Qualcomm MDM9645M was used.

With the iPhone 8 and iPhone X, Apple used the gigabit-capable Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 for CDMA models sold in the United States. International and GSM models used the Intel XMM 7480.

The situation would once again change with the iPhone XS, though. Due to a legal dispute with Qualcomm in January 2017, the iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone 11 range all used Intel modems.

However, with the iPhone 12 range in 2020, Apple once again returned to Qualcomm modems, using the Snapdragon X55, which introduced mmWave support. mmWave is a high-speed 5G network available in the United States.

Qualcomm modems saw exclusive use with the iPhone 13, iPhone 14, and iPhone 15ines. Most of the iPhone 16 range also used Qualcomm Snapdragon modems, except for one model.

Apple’s iPhone 16e was the first iPhone to feature an in-house modem, the C1. The Apple-designed modem allowed for improved battery life and power efficiency, though at the cost of mmWave support.

The iPhone 17e continued the trend with the C1X modem, which also made its way into the ultra-thin iPhone Air. The standard iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max, however, continued to use Qualcomm Snapdragon modems.

With the iPhone 18 range, Apple is expected to offer multiple modem configurations. While the iPhone 18e and iPhone Air 2 will most likely use Apple-designed modems, the C2 could also ship in iPhone 18 Pro models sold outside the United States.

For mmWave-compatible iPhone 18 Pro models, meanwhile, Apple seemingly plans to use Qualcomm Snapdragon modems.

In short, iPhones used Infineon modems before it began relying on Qualcomm hardware throughout the early to mid 2010s. After a few years where iPhones shipped exclusively with Intel modems, Apple switched back to Qualcomm modems, until the C1 and C1X came along.

Qualcomm modems across iPhone models:

• iPhone 4 (CDMA): MDM6600
• iPhone 4S: MDM6610
• iPhone 5, 5S, 5C: MDM9615M
• iPhone 6 and iPhone SE 2016: MDM9625M
• iPhone 6S: MDM9635M
• iPhone 7 CDMA: MDM9645M
• iPhone 8 and iPhone X CDMA: Snapdragon X16
• iPhone 12 range: Snapdragon X55
• iPhone SE 3 (2022): Snapdragon X57
• iPhone 13 range: Snapdragon X60
• iPhone 14 range: Snapdragon X65
• iPhone 15 range: Snapdragon X70
• iPhone 16 range (except iPhone 16e): Snapdragon X71
• iPhone 17 range (except iPhone 17e & iPhone Air): Snapdragon X80
• iPhone 18 Pro mmWave (expected): Snapdragon X85

Qualcomm modems in iPad

As with the iPhone, the original iPad featured an Infineon modem. With cellular models of the iPad 2, Apple used an Intel modem for GSM variants, and a Qualcomm MDM6600 modem for the CDMA variant.

The cellular variant of the iPad mini 7 still features a Qualcomm modem.

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Cellular models of the iPad 3 used the Qualcomm MDM9600 for both CDMA and GSM variants, with the MDM9615 being in the iPad 4, the original iPad Air, and the first three generations of iPad mini.

The Qualcomm MDM9625 was used in the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 4. The following MDM9635 was used in 2015 and 2016 iPad Pro models. The 2017 iPad 5 similarly uses a Qualcomm modem, with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X12 modem being in the 2017 iPad Pro.

Starting with the 2018 iPad Pro and iPad 6, as with the iPhone, Apple moved away from Qualcomm to Intel modems. That remained the case with the 2020 iPad Pro and iPad mini 5,

With the 2021 M1 iPad Pro, Apple went back to using Qualcomm modems, starting with the Snapdragon X55. Meanwhile, the iPad mini 6, iPad Air 5, and 10th-generation iPad used the Qualcomm Snapdragon X60.

The M2 iPad Pro featured a Snapdragon X65 modem, while the M4 iPad Pro, M2 iPad Air, and M3 iPad Air, iPad mini 7, and A16 iPad all used the Snapdragon X70.

With the M5 iPad Pro and M4 iPad Air, however, Apple made the switch to its C1X modem, allowing for better battery life. Future iPad Pro models will most likely continue to use Apple-designed modems.

Qualcomm modems across cellular iPads:

• iPad 2 CDMA: MDM6600
• iPad 3: MDM9600
• iPad 4, iPad Air 1, iPad mini 1, 2, 3: MDM9615
• iPad Air 2, iPad mini 4: MDM9625
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2015 and iPad Pro 9.7-inch: MDM9635
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch 2017 and iPad Pro 10.5-inch: Snapdragon X12
• M1 iPad Pro: Snapdragon X55
• iPad mini 6, iPad Air 5: Snapdragon X60
• M2 iPad Pro: Snapdragon X65
• M4 iPad Pro, M2 iPad Air, M3 iPad Air, iPad mini 7, iPad mini A16: Snapdragon X70

Qualcomm modems in Apple Watch

The original 2015 Apple Watch was not offered in a cellular variant, meaning it used no Qualcomm parts. An unreleased cellular variant of the Apple Watch Series 2 is said to have used Qualcomm’s MDM9625 modem.

The first Apple Watch with a Qualcomm modem was the Apple Watch Series 3.

It wouldn’t be until the Apple Watch Series 3 that the Apple Watch received a cellular modem, that being the Qualcomm MDM9635. For the Apple Watch Series 4 through Apple Watch Series 7, along with the original Apple Watch SE, Apple switched to Intel modems.

For the Apple Watch Series 8 through Apple Watch Series 11, Apple Watch Ultra 1 and Apple Watch Ultra 2, Apple reverted to using Qualcomm modems. The Apple Watch Ultra 3 and Apple Watch SE 3, meanwhile, offer a MediaTek 5G modem that supports RedCap technology, a power-efficient form of 5G.

Apple’s remaining product lines, including the Apple TV, Apple Vision Pro, Mac, and HomePod, do not feature Qualcomm components, as none of these devices feature cellular capabilities. They do have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules, but Apple generally uses Broadcom components or the N1 chip for that.

The Siri Remote for the fourth-generation Apple TV, though, did feature a Qualcomm CSR1010 Bluetooth radio. This was not the case for the Apple TV itself, however.

In short, Apple has often sourced modems from Qualcomm, and it still does, albeit only out of necessity. Once Apple’s C-series modems receive mmWave support, Apple will likely phase out all Qualcomm modems.